Static DHCP is better than IP address assignment on a device

//BEGIN RANT//

Attention standalone network attached device vendors like large copier manufacturers:

Please train your onsite personnel in understanding that a DHCP assigned address is not always a "Dynamic" address. Please help them understand that there is such a beast as "Static Allocation DHCP" or "Address Reservation". And that Static DHCP gives the equipment *the same address* every time. And help them realize that the equipment will work just fine on the network and won't magically just break. And that I can change every part of the network properties without touching the dumb box or it's crappy web/console interface. Please also train them to not go behind a client's back who gives explicit instructions on keeping the DHCP option enabled (and then enabling a static address on the device).

//END RANT//

JShot - multiplatform screen capture and annotator

Recently, I needed to do a minor amount of screen annotation. I was very pleased to have found JShot for my Linux system. As quoted from the website,

"JShot is a free and multiplatform screen capture and uploader application which allows you to capture and annotate a part of your screen and share it via the Internet in one step."

And as luck would have it, one of the upload options is for Google's Picasaweb that helps provide images for Blogger.

JShot is a usefully featured screen capture program. It is fast in screen, area or region capture. JShot has an optional toolbar dock that lets you quickly take the screenshot you want. There are several easy to select and use annotation tools. The tools include circles, ovals, squares, rectangles, arrows or text. I like the transparency and highlight options for those tools. Arrows and text input pivot and rotate with little effort. Text input font is easy to modify.

JShot will also open arbitrary image files for annotation beyond just the screenshot image taken. Nice additional features include the mentioned Picasaweb single click upload as well as FTP or Dropbox to name just a couple. You can even free-hand draw on your screen prior to screen capture (yes that is close to my normal handwriting scribble).

JShot also includes an extendable plugin capability for those needing something more. Did I mention the Java Web Start option?

There are just a couple of minor issues from my usage attempts. First, large images can not be scaled to fit on the screen. Also, the shapes can not be rotated (not that you rotate a circle). They move on an vertical or horizontal axis only. The "File" -> "Open" dialog does not remember last settings (for stuff like this, the date sort is more often what I want). I would also like to see the auto-number name incrementing that other screen capture utilities have like ksnapshot.  Another only slightly annoyance is the "File" -> "Exit" produces a "All unsaved data will be lost" message even if you *just* saved. Fairly nit-picky issues overall. None outweigh the very useful capability.

I have not been much of a java app fan, but JShot is a very well done utility that will remain in my Linux geek toolbox. Hope you enjoy this utility as much as I have. And just to be clear, JShot screen capture and annotator works for Mac, Windows and Linux.

Google Voice + Talkatone + iPhone/Android = Google VOIP phone

I had an older iPhone 3gs sitting around after upgrading to an (much better) Android handset a while back. The contract was over for the iPhone and was ultimately claimed by my son. He has been watching Youtube videos and playing games on the thing ever since. For some strange reason, I decided to check for SMS and VOIP options for it's WIFI connection. The generic search of "iphone 3gs VOIP" lead to many options. Most were not free or just not what I was thinking. At some point I stumbled onto the free Talkatone app with the promise of "Unlimited FREE calls, texts and picture sharing to Facebook and GTalk friends, or any phone number in US/Canada." Wow, what a statement. I am happy to say that from my point of view, they are correct.

The Getting Started section spells out the general procedure. It was actually easy. I had already setup a Google account for my son and just added the Google Voice upgrade. No big deal. With prerequisites done, the Talkatone install was easy. The combination just worked. My only marginal issue is the voice lag starts to get on the slightly noticeable side. Not a deal breaker noticeable mind you. And yes, I was able to call the iPhone from other phones just like they say.

I did try to setup a SIP account at an early stage of just playing with a couple of apps. Not very easy and did not work for me. So, having this combo made my geeky day. Besides, almost any time you can integrate with Google, you are going to be better off. It has so much of my digital life anyway.

Just so it's clear, Talkatone will work on both the iPhone from the App Store and Android handset from Google play.

This is not actually a thorough review or install howto. I just have some general praise for a geeky and fun product combination that works. The Talkatone peeps have done a great job!

Enjoy

CentOS 6.2 BCM4312 working wifi howto

Linux on laptops has come a LONG way over the years. I am happy to say that most Linux installs for laptops go with very little or no issues. Recently decided to install CentOS 6 (but I'm sure this applies to RHEL 6 or SL6) on an otherwise decent Dell D630 laptop. My only issue was wifi not working out of the box. The "issue" seems to be mostly about the BCM4312 802.11 card in the laptop. Here is the easy fix:

1. Get the "updated" el6 b43-firmware rpm from the Russian Fedora guys. (make sure it's the *el6* version)
 

wget "http://koji.russianfedora.ru/koji/buildinfo?buildID=1041"

2. Install it (current version depreciates the b43-openfwwf package nicely)

yum install b43-firmware-5.10.56.27.3-2.el6.noarch.rpm

3. Wait several seconds and the wifi light comes on and wifi works!

I originally tried with the documented b43-fwcutter -w "$FIRMWARE_INSTALL_DIR" broadcom-wl-5.100.138/linux/wl_apsta.o but failed to extract the firmware needed.

I also looked into the kmod-compat-wireless but current information suggest, "RHEL6 packages are broken at present". Enjoy.

Here is all of the info from the BCM4312 card in question:

lspci | grep BCM
0c:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY (rev 01)

lspci -n | grep 14e4

0c:00.0 0280: 14e4:4315 (rev 01)

Original /var/log/messages indicated:

b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode15.fw" not found
b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43-open/ucode15.fw" not found
b43-phy0 ERROR: You must go to http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/...devicefirmware and download the correct firmware for this driver version. Please carefully read all instructions on this website.

Google Music Manger issue with .ogg file?

Had a very head scratching issue with the (at least the) Linux version of Goggle Music Manger. GMM claims to have uploaded all of the songs and produced some errors on some individual song titles. I didn't think much of the errors since the upload showed successful. I then went to the Google Play page to take the next step of creating some play lists. To my surprise, I only had the original group of files I uploaded a while back and the recently purchased songs from Google (practically a) give-way of albums from last week. I went back to look at the errors noted by Google Music Manager and deleted from disk the files that were named in the errors. I was left with a single error from the "Run Troubleshooter" option; and the error listed that had no filename and a error with just "Failed to upload". Kinda odd to find no filename... Finally noticed that after hitting "Apply" and "Ok" I saw a "0%" on a Al DiMeola song and went searching for it. Immediately after moving the file from the original disk location on my system, Google Music Manger had a little green icon turn on and Google Play began to see the songs. That Al DiMeola song was an otherwise legit and playable .ogg file. I can only suspect that GMM does not like OGG files at this point, but doesn't want to ignore them. Hope my pain is your gain with Google Music Manager.

Dell Server Update Utility (SUU) v6.5.3 64-bit CentOS/RHEL 6 problems

Just going to vent here for a minute, so stay with me...Why? Why would you have so many 32bit dependencies when running SUU on a 64bit OS. I mean Dell has already shown that OMSA for 32bit is not going to happen going forward. At least fix your own documentation for requirements... please.

So, to get SUU 6.5.3 functional on a 64bit CentOS 6.2 or RHEL 6.x server (and SL I bet), you *will* need to:

yum install pam.i686 libXtst.i686 libXext.i686 compat-libstdc++-33.i686 pam.i686

As noted in the comments by Carlos Capriotti, if you want to run the GUI stuff, you will need a couple more packages:

yum install ncurses-libs.i686 libXp.i686

Verizon pc770 wireless card setup on CentOS 6.x

It's a very good time in a Linux lovers life when you can just say, "it works"... Because of all of the hard work of countless volunteers (and/or paid professionals). I am pleased to announce that the crappy unount of the virtual CD ROM is no longer needed in CentOS 6.x (or SL 6, RedHat 6)!

Thank You!

1. Plug in the card
2. Select the provider
3. Follow the prompts
4. Activate the card

NICE. It just WORKS!

P.S. Sorry about the situation for CentOS 5.x, but it's, "doable".